Study Finds That Complaining Is Bad For Your Mental Health

Trending News: Complaining Is Bad For Your Health, Study Finds

Why Is This Important?

Because sometimes "conventional" wisdom is just plain wrong.

Long Story Short

Inc. has a story that will change the way you think about the virtues of "venting" your frustrations. Not only does it not help you feel better, it makes others feel worse and can even affect your mental and physical health.

Long Story

Chronically positive people are strange anomalies, to the point where they can hardly be trusted. I mean, who doesn't feel frustrated with the world sometimes? Rather than put on an unwaveringly happy face, most of us deal with our frustration the old fashioned way: Venting and complaining to anyone who will listen. It feels good to blow off a little steam, right? Maybe not. According to this nifty article over at Inc., complaining out loud is one of the worst things you can do.

For starters, the idea that releasing frustration makes us feel better just isn't correct, especially if there's nothing you can do about the thing that's frustrating you — after all, how does repeatedly fuming over people who get to the front of the line at Subway with no idea of what they want (it's f*cking Subway, it's all the same shit) help you if you don't intend to one day cock-punch the next person who steps up and asks "uhhh, what kind of bread do you have?" What's more, complaining makes other people feel worse, too. As Inc. quotes psychologist Jeffrey Lohr:

"People don't break wind in elevators more than they have to. Venting anger is...similar to emotional farting in a closed area. It sounds like a good idea, but it's dead wrong."

A psychologist, a man with several important letters after his name, compares complaining to other people to farting in an elevator. But if that's not enough to convince you to just suck it up and soldier on, Inc. points out three other, more concrete effects of all that bellyaching. The first is that thinking negative thoughts causes the brain to wire itself in a particular way. That is, having a negative thought makes it easier to have more negative thoughts. Voicing these thoughts doesn't change the fact that you're having them in the first place.

Similarly, being around negative people affects our brains as well, because seeing someone express an emotion causes our brains to take those emotions for a "test drive" of its own. It's essentially the same reason why internet articles and Facebook posts that cultivate OUTRAGE tend to spread like wildfire. Finally, and more concerning, is the fact that the stress caused by being angry all the time is bad for your health — to the point where it could kill you. The stress hormone cortisol, a known cause of weight gain, also weakens your immune system and increases your risk of heart disease.

So if venting your frustrations is a terrible idea, what can you do? Writing over at Psych Pedia (the source for much of Inc.'s article), author Steven Parton says it's simple: We always have a choice. When you experience a setback, loss or other frustration, you have a choice between letting it consume you or forcing yourself to reflect, learn a lesson and move forward.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

What's the best way to overcome frustration so I can move on?

Disrupt Your Feed

I know I'd rather laugh over a beer than cry into a pillow.

Drop This Fact

Laughter really is a good medicine — it lowers levels of the stress hormone cortisol.